This invention is related to the field of traffic processing using probe data (e.g., data indicating a position and/or heading of a probe device traveling in a road or travel network). Generally, a primary goal of traffic data providers is the generation of accurate traffic speed information on every road or travel segment within its geographic database. However, one of the most challenging travel segments for estimating traffic information is a travel segment with traffic controls (e.g., stop lights, stop signs, pedestrian crossings, etc.) that can potentially result in reports of low or zero speeds when vehicles stop at the traffic controls even when there is actually no congestion. The presence of such traffic controls can result in a travel segment that has multi-modal traffic speed profiles as observed from collected probe data (e.g., a bi-modality where a higher speed traffic profile can be observed when a stop light is green and lower speed traffic profile can be observed when the stop light is red or yellow). This problem is particularly acute when there is a travel segment that is dense with such traffic control points (e.g., stop lights or stop signs at every block along a street). Accordingly, service providers face significant technical challenges to avoiding false inferences of traffic congestion or other traffic-speed related states (e.g., mode of transport) when processing probe data collected from travel segments that are multi-modal with respect to speed.